TO THE EDITOR:
While I agree with the overall sentiment expressed by Andrew Moon in his article on the failure of public school lunch reform, I am compelled to protest the disservice he renders to diabetics, and public knowledge of this disease.
Moon refers to diabetes three times in a column about unhealthy diets. This contributes to the misperception that diabetes is always caused by poor nutrition. While type 2 diabetes is often caused in part by lifestyle, there is always a genetic factor involved. Moreover, type 1, or insulin dependent diabetes, is never caused by lifestyle and results from a combination of genetics and environmental triggers which cause an autoimmune response.
As a student of public health, Moon should be aware of how his invocation of a disease can further misunderstandings. I have had type 1 diabetes for 18 years, and I struggle in a very real way against the myths about “diabetes”: that it was my fault, that it could have been prevented with better dietary choices, that diabetics are lazy and fat. While Moon could have realistically pointed to type 2 diabetes as a potential side effect of the poor nutrition in school lunches, it was irresponsible of him to invoke “diabetes” in this article, adding to the conflation of all varieties of this disease, and furthering public misunderstanding of the condition in general.
Anndal Narayanan
Graduate Student
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